'The Dreamboat', Frances MacDonald McNair

Beaten lead, mirror glass; wood frame
s. and d.b.l.: ‘FRANCES MACNAIR. 1921’
71.2 x 59.7 (28 x 23 ½)
Hunterian Art Gallery, University of Glasgow

This is Macdonald’s last known work. It returns to the designs of the 1890s for the format of a beaten metal frame and the subject matter of a sleeping/dead woman.

The subject is Arachne, a nymph who attempted suicide having crossed the goddess Minerva and was turned into a spider. The subject perhaps presaged Macdonald’s own death later that year.